I have been wondering why I am so galled and appalled and really deeply disgusted about the recent events regarding Sarah Palin, when I am a democrat.
I think I finally hit the root of my deep perturbation. And yes, I am a woman, and loathe the way her family life has been paraded all over the place, but it goes way beyond sexism.
If we are supposed to believe that a political candidate can go beyond their own PERSONAL opinions and self-interest to work for the benefit of EVERYONE in the country, regardless of political affiliation, or even whether they can vote (eg, those under 18), we can and should be able to expect no less from news-related journalists.
They are supposed to present us with FACTS, regardless of which way they have decided to vote.
This election has shown that we need to hold BOTH up to high standards from, now on, and make them accountable for all their words and actions.
And that includes the internet bloggers and email writers who have produced wholesale FICTION on both sides. Which was then reported as FACT by no less than the New York Times.
Why? Because it was what that journalist WANTED to believe. Because the “FACTS” were filtered through their biased lenses based on their own PERSONAL point of view.
Gibson snapping EXACT WORDS was the last straw for me. They were NOT her exact words that he was quoting, nor was his definition of ‘the Bush Doctrine’ accurate.
The media are actually making themselves MORE powerful than the people meant to govern this country.
The Geraldo Rivera fake war reports in 2002, Dan Rather letters in 2004 and the coverage of this campaign all proves they can build a person or issue up, and equally easily tear it right back down–after all, it makes for great headlines, and viewers, and readership.
Obama was up 14 points in the polls, he is now down 4. Up, down, up, down.
Who benefits from these ‘lies, scandals, and poorly edited videotape’?
The media moguls benefit. They sell ads, they get more and more money. They win no matter what.
We are still left wondering when someone is going to talk about REAL issues, real suffering by real people all over this country, like homeless women living in San Francisco in organized, patrolled car parks to try to stop them from being raped or worse, being homeless because they have been foreclosed upon.
Kids who can’t afford to go to school if they lose their free bus pass, unless they choose not to eat.
REAL people, real suffering.
But the media (and some of the candidates) would rather rant about pantsuits, lipstick, pitbulls, who can or can’t use a computer, and scrappy kids from Scranton.
On Monday, one harmless, inexperienced journalist, with the help of Google, a 6 years old news article, and his own lack of checking of the facts, nearly brought down United Airlines on the stock market in less than an hour from the time his story hit the Bloomberg newswire.
He was NOT badly intentioned. Just think if he had been intent on mischief, though.
Which demonstrates that the media has TOO MUCH power.
Freedom of speech is a positive value, but not if it is being used against the American people to manipulate in order to achieve their own agendas, be they those of the left, right, green etc.
And not when a personal attack becomes indistinguishable from a political one, and vice versa.
